A meeting was held on Tuesday morning at Chalong Pier, led by Navy chief of staff Admiral Pichet Tannaset, who said he was determined to follow through with measures that would ensure marine safety – better controlling tour boats in Phuket in order to prevent marine accidents.

We were told after last week’s Phuket boat disaster that a “Marine department patrol boat has braved rough seas to bring 33 tourists stranded at Koh Racha Yai back to safety”. Indeed with winds of 35kph, and a swell of 2.4 metres, local tour boats should have kept ashore.

Tour boats were on Sunday allowed to operate from Phuket’s Chalong Bay to short-distance attractions as many people had booked their trips prior to the July 5 diving-yacht tragedy which has left 42 people dead while 14 were missing at press time on Sunday.

A tour boat carrying 16 Chinese tourists and several Thais sunk off Phang Nga Bay on Sunday morning, as a mechanical issue was being repaired and large waves capsized the vessel, said Ao Phang Nga National Park chief Sarayuth Tansathien.

The first day of the auction in Phuket of assets that were seized from Tranlee Travel Co Ltd and affiliated businesses saw the sale of six tour boats and six buses, raising Bt15.58 million, the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) announced yesterday.